Craft Room Life -January 2024

Cutting the willow

After a very wet autumn and flooded winter  in Lavenham, 781mm for the year,a lot for dry East Anglia. We have had the most glorious, sunny ,cold frosty weather. I have been outside wrapped up well cutting and sorting my willow beds, a friendly robin beside me and buzzards mewing overhead.  At the end of each day I bring the bundles back up to The Craft Room, I store them on pallets against a north wall where it gets no sun. This is what we will be using green in our workshops.

Once I have cut all the rods I revisit each stool and take the nobbly bits off sometimes using a chainsaw to reduce the crown. I have already cleared the bowl of the plant of all leaves ,often finding grain and eaten acorns and the tell tale teeth marks of voles. After checking the fence for gaps my final job is to spread straw  carefully around the plants and across the whole area. The hopeful aim is to suppress the weeds and keep the moisture in the ground.

I love working with willow while it is still green, it has amazing flexibity. I have some really long rods , 8 or 9 feet tall perfect for plant supports, one years growth. I am taking bookings for workshops and really looking forwards to meeting folk, and sharing my love of willow .